가상학습공동체 형성 과정 모형 연구 = A Study on Exploring athe Process Model of Online Learning Community Development

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Online learning community is becoming a prevalent way of networking, communicating and learning in this knowledge society. In Korea, there exists over 1,000 learning communities on the Web, excluding non-voluntary ones. The number of individual participants in these communities is ranging from around 50 through over 150,000. The potential educational power of online learning community cannot be overlooked. The purposes of the study are 1) to analyze influential elements of activating or weakening online community activities at various stages of community operation, 2) to develop a process model which describes the developmental stages of an online learning community, and 3) to identify a set of critical success factors at each developmental stages of the online learning community as guidelines for effective management of online learning communities. After 6 months of observation and interviews with leaders of 5 different online learning communities with diverse learning objectives, four stages of online community development were identified: set-up, take-off, stabilization, and eventually closing. It was found that two most influential elements during community development were strong leadership at the set-up and active member participation at the take-off stage. The process model was developed in three steps; development of a draft model, refinement of the model and development of the final model. The validity of the final model was measured by Scott`s Observed Percent Agreement Factor Coefficient and the Coefficient appeared to be .76. With regard to the usability and applicability of the model, five leaders of the observed online learning communities evaluated the final model as well reflecting the actual online learning community development and activities. The study concluded with a set of guidelines for effective management of online learning communities along with further research areas.